Cal Thomas is absolutely right, no matter how upset and outraged the loonies on the left and the politically correct arses ruining this country and exposing us to annihilation may fret and whimper!

How come we detain and apprehend - and rightly so - someone trying to enter our country with a particularly deadly strain of tuberculosis (unless, of course, you are an illegal Mexican alien sneaking across the border, in which case you may bring any strain of TB you like and be welcomed in our "Sanctuary Cities" to boot) and we make of it a news item and an international incident - as recently happened, and yet we let thousands of Muslims into our country every day carrying the deadly strain of their barbaric culture of death and sick ideology of hatred and intolerance, allowing them to infect us and to metastasize and spread their Islamic "cancer" amongst us? How stupidly asinine and naive is that?!?!

As I have pointed elsewhere, no matter how much the so called "moderate Muslims" and "apologists" for Islam may want to "sugar-coat" the savage and murderous aspects of Islam inherent to it from its accursed inception, the Jihadists are the ones literally following the Koran and the teachings (and using interpretations of their own choosings). The murderous Jihadist suicide bombers are not a "fringe group" as the politically correct would make us believe, but those Muslims who best represent the very nature of the true twisted soul of Islam! It is Islam as a whole that is a "cancer" upon the world - it has only brought nothing but strife, bloodshed, death, and destruction for centuries upon this sorry earth. So much for the "Religion of Peace"!

I am sure that many who are Muslims - who are indeed not murderous fanatics like their fellow Islamist co-religionists, but caring, reasonable, and law-abiding human beings, intent on living and letting others live - one day opened their eyes in their crib and saw mom, dad, and the Mullah, and they did not have much say in the matter. To these I say: " Throughout history there have naturally been instances of extremists and nuts in every religion and ideological system, but, when was the last time you saw Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, Animists, Jains, or others, strap themselves with explosives and blow themselves up to in order to murder innocent bystanders as a "mandate" of their religion, which to boot entices them with promises of reward in "Paradise" and of "eternal sexual bliss in Heaven"?!?!

I urge these "moderate" Muslims to convert to, shalll we say, a more "innocuous" faith - even rabid atheists are potentially less lethal than a fanatical Muslim hell-bent on following the Koran to the letter of the law and getting laid in heaven!

I am sorry for being harsh, but the Muslims themselves with the murderous culture of barbarism of their accursed prophet have brought this judgement upon themselves: Many times when cancer has spread to a patient's limb only amputation will save the patient's life. Also when cancer has spread to an internal organ often removal is the only alternative for the survival of the patient. I'd say that for the sake of the rest of humanity, maybe we should round all the Muslims of the world up, give them the opportunity to renounce Islam and its culture of death, and if not, do them all a favor, gather them in Mecca and Medina, strap them all with explosives so that they can be "Shahid" and get their 72 virgins or whatever phalluses women and Islamic gays get as a reward, and then nuke them all out of existence - after all, don't you treat
"cancer" with "radiation"?

In the words of an old Spanish Proverb: "Muerto el perro, se acabo la rabia" - "With the dog dead, the rabies is gone" - how true!

Quote:

So-called "moderate" Muslims do not speak up because of adherence to Islam or out of fear.

Apparently, a good Muslim cannot publicly criticize another Muslim; it will humiliate Islam (anything and everything will humiliate Islam).

In the case of fear, Muslims know that their fellow Muslims slaughter and brutalize Muslims at least as much as they slaughter and brutalize non-Muslims (the ever evil kefir). Honour killings are a way of life in the religion of peace.

Posted by: terrence at July 7, 2007 3:38 PM

-

Very true. All the more reason why such
"incidental" Muslims, who as I said, one day opened their eyes in their cribs and saw mom, dad, and the Mullah without their having had much say in the choosing of their religion or culture, should opt to convert to a more "innocuous" belief system. So long as they acquiesce and apologize for murderous Islam, out of misplaced loyalty and filial affiliation, they are complicit with the suicide bombers and the terrorists!

From its inception "Jihad" is an all-out war upon the "infidels", and as the very name "Islam" implies, its goal the forceful conversion into "submission" of the conquered and the imposition of Islam, the prophet, and Sharia. Muslim "apologists" may turn blue in the face spinning this fact, trying to morph "Jihad" into some sort of esoterical "inner struggle of mystical enlightenment", but the stark historical truth of the matter is that the only enlightenment "gleaned" from Jihad in the past has been the glint of the setting sun on blood-dripping Jihadist swords amidst a blood-soaked charnel-house of battlefield carnage and slaughter - much as it remains today!

There should be no place for such "Jihad" in this world...or for the hateful Islamic religion/cult of death ideology that promotes it! Period.

Althor

Oh great. So here in London we have crazies on both sides. We have a real enough problem without ranting morons like "Althor".

Fuck off. It is my family that you endangering with your ignorant ravings.

Sanity
London England

It sounds as though our friend Hugh is oblivious to the very real and very great threat that exists from the Islamists, and/or is oblivious to the difference between Islamists and Muslims. Perhaps Hugh might consider placing the shoe of the moron on another foot - such as his own. There is absolutely nothing offensive in this post or in the comments that could be construed to be offensive to true moderate followers of Islam. They know the difference between islamists and Muslims. Hugh on the other hand .....

As for Althor's comments, he does go a bit close to the edge, but one should be able to readily discern his intent, which is to condemn the jihad of the Islamists. To the extent that he condemns all Muslims, that of course is wrong, but an obvious normal reaction to the incredible worldwide death and destruction caused by Islamists in the name of Islam.

Oh yes ? The Haymarket attempt was a couple of hundred yards from my office, and a suspected second car bomb was dismantled under my window as I worked.

For your information there are plenty of moderate Muslims who have spoken up. Wahabi Salafism and its jihadist mutants are not representative of Islam any more than the Rev Fred Phelps is representative of Christianity.

It is the pig ignorance which is so depressing. For the benefit of "Althor's list:

Jews - Baruch Goldstein
Hindus - Tamil Black Tigers (inventors of the suicide vest).
Buddhists - Self immolation suicides in Colombo and Saigon and instigation of massacres of Tamils.
Jains - Complicit in some partition massacres of 1947.
Christians - Republican 15 year bombing of London financed from New York and Boston

Crazies feed off crazies and the last thing that we need is ignorant outpourings from the Republican right (presumably complete with waist line problem) stoking things up further.

It is certainly pissing us off over here. Any allies left you guys?

Sanity
London England

By way of further comment .. the statement "there is nothing offensive in this post or the comments". Hah. Did anyone actually read "...false prophet piss be upon him" . It only validates the world view of fanatics and gets innocent people killed. Who needs enemies over here ?

Sanity
London England

Hugh is apparently far too naive to the Islamists' agenda, and far too anti-U.S., to even have a common sense discussion with. So this will end the commentary with him. However, the unnecessarily offensive comment in Althor's post slipped by me, I seem to have missed picking up on it. It has now been edited out.

As for virtually everything else in the post, I find nothing, absolutely nothing, offensive to moderate Muslims in it. If Hugh believes otherwise, he either has no clue as to the difference between Muslims in general, and Islamists.

Clearly, Hugh has been drinking far too much Kool Aid to understand how people like him actually contribute to the jihadists' agenda. Nothing personal, just a fact.

As a Muslim, I find Islamist apologists like Hugh just as offensive as the Althors that are as bitter against Islam as Hugh is against the one country that stands between the global jihadists having their way, and the survival of Western civilization.

Real Muslims prefer to practice their faith, not jihad and Islamism. Perhaps it is a vocabulary issue for Hugh, maybe he just doesn't have enough information, or maybe he's actually a jihadist in disguise. Irregardless, he's wrong. Hopefully, people like him will "get it" before they, along with the rest of us, are naively - dead wrong.

Islamic apologist ? A conservative Christian actually. Anti-American? Two of my ancestors sailed on the Mayflower. Fanaticism and hatred are the equal enemy of all religions. Your main feature was generally fair comment. You must however actually read what is posted (I seem to have encouraged this !) since comments like Althor's are so offensive and extreme that they only support the fanatics which we confront on a daily basis.

Let us leave Althor with a more positve vision from the Muslim mystic poet Jalaluddin Rumi:

Music opens our hearts and surely ensnares,
With echos that spill from celestial spheres,
And faith far beyond the impaled cast of thought
Turns ugly dissonance to honey by angels brought.

Sanity London

Ps What are Kool Aids ?

Kool-Aid in the sense used here means someone so committed to a political cause, candidate, agenda, or issue that they senselessly ignore facts in conflict with their political viewpoint or world view. It's not meant here to be personal or overly critical, rather, more or less close-minded. Again, here said more in jest than to attack or criticize. Kool Aid, of course, is actually a drink but back in the sixties it sort of became associated with LSD use - and it more or less evolved from there.

As for saying Hugh was way too much in the Kool-Aid, if Hugh's anger (assuming such since used the F-word rather than write to discuss) was a reaction to Althor's comment and not to what was said in the post, again - none of which could be construed to be offensive to a Muslim that is not a jihadist/Islamist, than the Kool Aid reference was then probably not appropriate.

As for Rumi, he's always a nice way to end a conversation. A man whose prose applies just as well to all three mainline faiths, Christian, Jew, and Muslim.

Thank you for that. My recollection of California in the summer of '67 in a broken down Citroen 2CV was hazy at the time, let alone now.

Let us raise a glass then to reasoned discourse.

Please do remember the Danish cartoon fiasco which was manipulated by fanatics to recruit impressionable minds across Europe. There are estimated to be about 100 putative terrorist cells currently active in the UK and it is crtical that the mainstream Muslim community of about 1.5 million is actively engaged in isolating this menace. This is a sensitive issue for us which can lead to regression to Anglo Saxon sentance structures because lives are at risk.

Good luck

Sanity London

Hugh, thanks for your reasonable input, it seems that you "get it," after all. You had us worried for a bit, but it's obvious now that you do indeed understand the difference between Islamists and Muslims, jihadists, and moderates.

Abdul and I both are strong supporters of resisting the jihadists at every opportunity, and refusing to accommodate their demands for special treatment - all intended to step by step undermine Western society and other faiths. At the same time, it's important to keep in mind that there are more Muslims that are not jihadists than there are that are jihadists. Clearly, you understand that.

Do keep stopping by, your input is much appreciated.

Wow! One stays away from blogging for a couple of days and all hell breaks loose, heh, heh! Where was I when all these salvos were being fired about my comments - darn, I missed all the fun!

But, to address some of the objections and rebuttals that were exchanged, it seems that our friend "Sanity" has been so "sanitized" by political correctness run-amok in the UK, that it has befuddled him!

First of all, "Fuck off. It's my family that you are endangering with your ignorant ravings"? Really, Sanity? I have never been to the UK, and I don't wear suicide vests, so I don't know how I could be "endangering" your family, unless you are intimating by your statement and admitting by inference the underlying sinister reality that because of Muslim Islamic "intolerance" we can't even exercise that ever so precious "Freedom of Speech" enshrined in the long standing democratic traditions of both our nations without
"endangering" our very lives, which is appalling! It's the Muslim in the heavy overcoat strapped with explosives entering your office building, Sanity, who is "endangering" you and your family, or the Muslim doctors who kill instead of healing, not Althor's "ravings" from across the "pond."

By the way Sanity, about the "fuck off," I'm glad to see you British still keep a rich and erudite vocabulary in the parlance of our Mother Tongue. Now, go and bloody "stuff yourself."

But this is symptomatic. Is this what our liberties have denigrated to in our politically correct derangement? That we can't draw a cartoon of someone's prophet because it will unleash a whirlwind of death and violence around the world? That we can't criticize the intolerance and barbarity of a sick and twisted belief system lest we "offend" someone who will then kill innocent people indiscriminately in response for the perceived "slight"? That we can't even quote scholarly circles a dark passage from a long dead Byzantine Emperor only stating the obvious - "Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached"- much as the boy in the tale of the
"Emperor's New Clothes" mocking the butt-naked deluded Emperor pompously parading himself, while the fawning Courtiers and the crowd, afraid for their lives just as Sanity and other Muslim "appeasers" are for theirs, complimented the supposedly fabulous garments in much the same manner we today compliment this supposed "Religion of Peace" that has only brought death and carnage to the world all through its infamous and bloody history? "Religion of Peace" my arse (nice old English word)! Dream on.

Of course, we can show Christ crucified in a jar of urine and the Virgin Mary depicted in dung and that's ok, but God forbid someone utters a sarcasm of "Piss Be Upon him" about Mohammed, because you will have the utterance "sanitized," edited-out, and deleted from your post...that is if you don't have your head cut off or are blown up to smithereens first by your local friendly Muslim neighbors!

Of course there have been atrocities committed in the name of every belief system ever conceived by man; you always have the fanatics, the nuts, and the extremists. But in no other present day belief system is this fanatical extremism so pervasive and "mainstream" as in Islam. Yes, we have the Baruch Goldsteins, the Tamil Black Tigers, the Jains were complicit in some of the partition massacres of 1947, yes, Buddhist monks do have a tendency to set themselves on fire, and, of course, who will ever let Christians forget the "Inquisition," but unlike Islam, today all these acts of extremism are rather localized and the exception rather than the norm in Judaism, Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, Christianity et al, even in Atheism - though there is always the ACLU. As for "Christians - Republican 15 year bombing of London financed from New York and Boston", I presume you must be referring to the IRA, and that was also "localized" and rather the exception. The majority of Irish Americans were as appalled by the IRA bombings and the violence as any decent human being would be, and I would like to remind you that if it were not for "New York", "Boston", and the rest of America during the war, you Brits would now be eating Kraut, speaking German, and raising your arms in "Sieg Heil" in a waft of odorous hairy armpits amidst the ruins of London.

It wasn't Jews who flew the planes into the Twin Towers on 9/11, or Hindus who carried out the bombings in Madrid, or Jains who blew themselves up in the "Tube" and the bus in "Londonistan," or Buddhist monks who are daily blowing themselves up along with hundreds of innocent victims in Iraq and elsewhere, it was Muslims, so get real! Islam is the
"cancer" of death, intolerance, violence, and carnage, that has spread and "metastasize" all throughout the world.

I truly appreciate Abdul's gracious comments on my defense, and it pains me if I offended him personally in any way, being that he is a Muslim, but the stark reality is that so long as so called "moderate Muslims" refuse to, out of loyalty to their faith and culture, or because they feel intimidated, speak against this cancerous onslaught of Islamic extremism, they are complicit with it.

If Islam is to survive in the modern world, it is high time that it undergoes a "Vatican II" or a "Reformation." Isn't one of the grievous offenses of "Sir" Salman Rushdie that he touches at length the taboo subject of how Mohammed was tricked by the devil, passing himself off as the Archangel Gabriel, deceiving him into writing the so called "Satanic Verses" after which Rushdie titled his very enlightening and controversial book? Who is to say if that is not the only time that the devil deceived Mohammed, and the so called "War Verses" upon which the Jihadists literally base themselves to carry out all their massacres and bloodshed, are indeed of Satanic provenance, and should be struck from the Koran as well? The matter bears looking into by all honest good-willed Muslims with open minds.

Yes, not all Muslims are suicidal murderous fanatics, but pray tell me, how do we distinguish a decent, law abiding, moderate Muslim, from one hell-bent on blowing us all up - especially since such an alarming large percentage of the world's 1.2 billion Muslims participate in the Jihadist terror, support it, or sympathize with the terrorists cheering Osama Bin Laden, Al Qaeda, Hezbollah, and Hamas? The stark, blunt reality is that out of necessity, as with a cancer stricken organ, where the good cells must need be "extirpated" along with the cancerous ones, radical Islamism has to extirpated... if we are to survive. Only if so called "moderate Muslims" stop condoning the barbarous and inhuman intolerant aspects of their religion, reform it, modernize its 10th century tribal mentality to embrace the multi-cultural realities of the modern world, stop the apologia trying to rationalize the Jihadists and finding excuses for their extremism, and openly condemn and fight them, actively extirpating them themselves from their midst, will the inevitable clash of the rest of the world against Islam for the very survival of humanity be averted.

Perhaps Muslims would do well to consider the fact that though they are 1.2 billion strong, rabidly fanatical, and willing to die for Islam, yet, if push comes to shove, the remaining 6 billion people in the planet will have no other choice but to eradicate them from the face of the earth... forced to such draconian measures by the exigencies of their own survival! For one, I don't think the pragmatic and very populous Chinese, whose star is on the rise, will put up with much Jihadist nonsense and having such mayhem and carnage in Beijing and other major Chinese cities as we are witnessing in Iraq and other Jihadist hot-spots, and I am sure their practical solution will be rather swift and deadly rather than pussy-footing around as we do with "Jihadist human rights", wringing our politically correct hands, and keeping the terrorists in "Goldilocks - not too cold, and not too hot, but just right" accommodations, with three "Halal" square meals a day, such as Guantanamo! As to the historical animosity against Muslims by the majority of the populace of the next most populous country in the world, India, no comments are necessary since it goes without saying. So, I say the Muslim Jihadists should stop poking the "crouching tiger"in the arse, lest it turns around and bite all their heads off for good, and future generation will only learn about this strange, twisted, cult of death "Religion of Peace" (an early "Eternal Peace" that is) from the exhibits on museums.

As to Sanity's assertion that "...the mainstream Muslim community of about 1.5 million [in "Londonistan" and the UK] is actively engaged in isolating this menace", last I remember these "peace loving" followers of the "Religion of Peace" were trying to impose Sharia on everyone else in the UK, hold daily "Prayer" meetings in the streets of Londonistan chanting "Death to America", "Death to Israel", "Death to all Jews and Cross-worshipers", or "peacefully" demonstrating with signs that read "Behead all who offend Islam", "We will conquer you", and "Kill all Infidels". Now, I must be from Missouri, the "Show Me State", or it must be because I'm a "Cross-worshiping" Christian, but just like "Doubting Thomas", the contention that these very selfsame people are "actively engaged in isolating this menace", I'll believe it when I see it...and then I may not even believe my own eyes then, since they may very well be faking it and deceiving us, just as CAIR does in the U.S., while advancing the Islamist Jihadist agenda!

Meanwhile, urinals in which Muslims can wash their feet before prayers are installed at taxpayer expense at airports here in the U.S., and "Madrasas", with Muslim students segregated by sex and kept away from other "Infidel" students while they say their prayers after lunch, are being instituted in public schools in San Diego, again at taxpayer expense, while, of course, all other religious expressions are zealously banned from students of other faiths. Apparently Islam is the only religion to which the "Separation of Church and State" that the ACLU so rabidly enforces on everyone else, does not apply! Now, isn't that just wonderful? It's a secularist's multi-culturalist dream of appeasement, obeisance, and arse-kissing come true!

Oh well!

Althor

We have decided over here that Athor should treat himself to a trip and come over. It's nice and green after all the rain and there is a better forecast for August together with some great travel offers. He can talk to people direct and form his own view.

I have some fear that he may have been reading Melanie Phillips (oh dear, the world expert on the MMR vaccine and global warming). If so he might check out the web page of Melanie's neighbour in NW3, Jonathan Freedland for his thoughts.

Sanity
London

I have to agree with Hugh that Althor may have had a little too much Kool Aid before posting his comments, and don't believe that his comments are especially helpful in the direction of constructive dialogue.

However, as for Hugh's ref. to Melanie Phillips, she isn't the only one warning of a Londonistan (I'm one of them too), and she does have some important and very appropriate points in her book - some of which Hugh has actually offered support for in his own commentary.

This having been said, Althor's comments do come razor close to being of a nature that we'd usually have deleted his comments.

However, knowing him as we do, we know that his intentions are good, albeit his frustrations do get the best of him, but more importantly - his comments illustrate the frustrations felt by so many non-Muslims that clearly realize the great threat of Islamism to all of us, Muslims and non-Muslims alike. And from his comments one can see that he at least understands that every inch of ground given to the Islamists, especially in the course of appeasing their demands, is ground given that they will not only take advantage of but also find as a basis for ever-increasing demands thereafter. It's simply the way the Islamists think, and act.

This having been said, Hugh's postings thus far have been very helpful, and it's nice to see points discussed, and resolved, and understandings developed that are constructive rather than simple rants. When all is said and done, we're all in this war against Islamism, together.

Working together, Muslims and non-Muslims, is the only way we can beat back the plague of the sick ideology of Islamism and those that have extrapolated from the Koran such sickness through the prism of eyes that see only hate and intolerance, and the pursuit of global domination over others.

Yup. We will all chip in for a holiday for Athor, particularly as the weather over your way seems to be a bit wacky at the moment.

A specific and chilling feature of the current range of fundamentalist belief systems is their emotional engagement with themes of purification. There is a sense of taping into a deeper dynamic for genocidal cleansing which takes us beyond an issue which is specifically Islamic into more fundamental and universal roots of psychological evil. By the same measure, such ideologies are equipped with the emotive power to provide a glittering and complete world view to the frustrated, the marginalised and the disappointed.

The basis of any counterinsurgency war (this is my fourth) is of course to separate the central core from its surrounding community and, where possible, to bring over potential leadership.

I am disturbed by the suggestion that US covert money may have reached some salafist groups, particularly Fatah al-Islam in the Nahr al-Bared camp, via Lebanese intermediaries. There is also the monstrous development of the Fatah Presidential Guard to over 23,000 which has the potential to fragment into criminal gangs and fuel another round of militant fundamentalist reactions.

It is essential that a just solution is to the Palestinian problem is achieved (or imposed) for the benefit of ordinary Palestinians as quickly as possible ...(and here we do leave Melanie behind).

I am intrigued by the motivations and personality of Ismael Hanieh. Is this possibly someone who could be constructively engaged in order to isolate the hardcore of Hamas military wing? You might consider exploring these issues in a future article.

Sanity
London

Well, I'm glad that my "rant" that came close to "being of a nature that we'd usually have deleted" was at least a catalyst for a consensus of people willing to listen to reason and moderation to participate, and respond as to how best to deal with the rising tide of Radical Islamism... at least it's much better than making relevant posts or comments like
"...a voice of someone crying in the desert" and then having to listen to the "virtual crickets" chirping in the "virtual silence" in the background, amidst the apathy, as it's often the case.

Abdul is absolutely right. At this point, like many people in the West, I do feel far too frustrated and disgusted with all the needless bloodshed and carnage the Islamists are carrying out in the name of Allah, the Koran, and Mohammed, to be able to broach the matter with much objectivity and dispassion.

I particularly feel "betrayed" because having once had Muslim friends, and having read the Koran extensively, in the days of my "naivete" I did not stress so much then the import of the "War Verses" that the Jihadists use today to justify all their butchery and terror, but rather the fact that supposedly the Jews, Christians, and Muslims, are all "Children of the Book," that every verse of the Koran begins with "Praise be to Allah the Merciful and Compassionate" often thinking that if not only Muslims but all of us were to be as " merciful and compassionate" even as Allah is " Merciful and
Compassionate," that it would not only be the true way of the Koran, but the way to true lasting peace in the Middle East, and that Jews and Muslims being brothers, born of Abraham our father, that, as Jesus remarked: " ...there are many rooms in my Father's House" and room for all of us to live in peace and brotherhood...and then came 9/11 and it didn't just slap me in the face, but slammed me into a brick wall! You have the "Islamists" to thank for that.

However, Abdul's gentle scolding serves me right for generalizing about all Muslims, especially since from what I have come to know of Abdul, from his posts and
commentaries, and from his fellowship, he is a sensible, decent, and upright human being, not blinded by his faith or by any ideologies - so much so that being "Althor," and almost expected to say something "outrageous" even during my most lucid and enlightened comments - I often forget Abdul's a Muslim (heh, heh) I'm sure you'll all forgive me for the pun.

As for my drinking "Kool Aid," in my day I have drunk everything from Oban, Glen Garioch, and Talisker Single Malt Scotches, to Hennessy, Courvoisier Cognacs and Duque De Alba Brandy, to such excellent Bordeauxs as Chateau LaTour, Grand Cru Classé 1971, Chateau Comtesse de Lalande, Grand Cru Classé Pauillac 1959, and Baron Pichon
De Longeville, Second Cru Classé Pauillac 1966 - with which Queen Elizabeth regaled President Reagan at one of the Formal Dinners he once attended at "Buckinghalal Palace" (known as Buckingham Palace back then before the "ham" became "offensive"), so I can assure you that the one thing I was not drinking was "Kool Aid."

But I do have to point out that in spite of my "rant" I did make some valid points that ought to be seriously taken into consideration, such as:

Why is it is generally ok to show the crucified Jesus in a jar of urine, or the Virgin Mary depicted with dung, and yet the slightest irreverence to Islam or Mohammed are met with the most drastic censures? Is it perhaps because of the obvious fact that you most likely will not be blown-up for showing a crucified Jesus in urine, or beheaded for depicting a Virgin Mary in dung, but even the most innocuous caricature of Mohammed will unleash a wave of violence and destruction worldwide? Is this the reason why secularist governments in the West, while zealously clamping down on all other forms of religious expression on the public arena, yet, bend backwards at the taxpayer's expense to accord Islam and Muslims all sorts of "special accommodations" and privileges? Where does that leave the rest of us non-Muslims and our freedoms of expression and speech that we supposedly so cherish?

Isn't it time that Islamic scholars get together and undertake something akin to the Vatican II or the Reformation, in Islam, and clarify how those passages of the Koran the extremists exploit to justify all their deeds of death and destruction should be interpreted?

Isn't it possible that if indeed Mohammed was tricked by Shaitan once into writing the infamous "Satanic Verses" that the "War Verses" which the Jihadists use to justify all their carnage may also be of similar provenance? And can this even be seriously postulated or questioned without giving offence to some Muslim somewhere and eliciting a retaliatory bloodbath in response?

Why if there are so many moderate Muslims who abhor what the Jihadists are doing, there isn't more of an outcry from these moderate Muslims of the world against the extremists that are perpetrating all these horrors in the name of Islam? Is "fear" the only reason why so many moderate Muslims keep quiet? What about all those Muslims who claim to be "moderate" yet have later been exposed as secretly sympathizing and supporting the Jihadists? How truly prevalent is that Janus "double face" amongst so called Muslim moderates?

Are moderate Muslims not made complicit then by their deafening silence in the face of all the horrors and barbarities being committed by the Jihadists in the name of the faith they share, much as the German people bear the national guilt for the Holocaust, not merely those Germans who carried it out and supported it, but those who for similar reasons as that of many moderate Muslims today - out of fear, apathy, or simply because inwardly they sympathize with the Jihadists and identify with their goals much as many Germans did with the Nazis' agenda of Jewish annihilation - stood idly by as millions of human beings were being herded like cattle to the slaughterhouses to be exterminated in the Death Camps, much as today many moderate Muslims have failed to forcefully denounce and combat the extremists?

How can you tell a "moderate Muslim" in the crowd from an extremist hell-bent in blowing himself up along with everyone else around him, and does not the impossibility of making this distinction at a glance based solely on appearances makes
"profiling" all Muslims almost inevitable in the real world as unfair and repugnant as it may be to many?

What are the answers, if any, to such provocative, and complex, yet very valid questions, and how will the way they are eventually answered affect us all?!?!

Anyway, I do appreciate Hugh's kind gesture of inviting me to visit, and I am very glad he's enjoying good weather over in the UK, but, again, being "Althor," and almost expected to do so, I will end this "rant"by graciously declining his kind invitation, and pointing out that if I ever were to visit a "Muslim" country it would be Turkey, with its rich and ancient history, and its glorious Byzantine past, and not Londonistan.. Sorry Hugh, couldn't resist making the pun. LOL!

Althor

Great choice Althor. There are some really cool cafes along the Golden Horn which you will love.

The autumn is a really good time

Sanity
London